The Roanoke Times

As the NASCAR Nextel Cup series heads to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, competitors remain uncertain what to expect.

With its pack racing and multi-car crashes, many drivers worry that the championship chase will be shaken after Sunday's EA Sports 500.

"I think everybody's question going in is, it going to be crazy or is it going to be relaxed?" Newman said of the racing. "I think it has more potential to be crazy, but at the same time, we never know. We'll just have to take it one lap at a time and see how things turn out. The biggest crashes we've had at Talladega have been because of blown tires and cut tires because of debris. Those things aren't related to crazy drivers or the point system or anything else."

Newman won last week at Dover to climb to eighth in the points standings. Jeff Gordon, who won at Talladega in April, leads the standings. Gordon leads Kurt Busch by a point. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is third, 18 points back. Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin are tied for fourth, each 57 points behind Gordon.

Martin's future

There has been speculation that Mark Martin will retire after next season when his contract with Roush Racing expires, but that might not be the case.

"About the only way I would consider retiring is if I finished 40th in the points," Martin said Sunday after placing second at Dover. "It's a good thing to be challenging to win. If I had a year like last year, I was pretty miserable, but we have some things to sort out over the next four to six weeks, but retirement is not what I'm sorting out."

Busy times

Among the championship contenders testing this week are series leader Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Gordon was scheduled to test Tuesday and today at Lowe's Motor Speedway in preparation for next month's race there. Gordon finished 30th, seven laps behind winner Jimmie Johnson at the Coca-Cola 600.

Earnhardt, who has struggled at flat tracks more than 1.5-miles long, was scheduled to test Tuesday and today at Kansas Speedway. The series races there Oct.10.

Martinsville testing

Cup teams will begin testing Martinsville Speedway's new surface next week in preparation for the Oct.24 Subway 500.

Title contenders Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Jeremy Mayfield are scheduled to test Tuesday along with Greg Biffle and Sterling Marlin.

Scheduled to test Oct.6 are Busch, Johnson, Mayfield, Marlin and Ricky Rudd. Matt Kenseth is scheduled to test Oct.12.

Test sessions are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and open to the public.

Tough race

Kyle Petty on the intense racing at Talladega:

"Used to be you could tell how close a race was by how many guys were fighting in the pits after it was over," he said. "That tended to happen just at the short tracks, places like Bristol or Martinsville or Richmond.

"These days, the Talladega garage is not always a fun place to be after the race. It's usually good for plenty of yelling and screaming, and the line at the NASCAR hauler after the race can be as long there as it is at any short track."

New book

Dick Thompson, a former reporter at The Roanoke Times who also worked at Martinsville Speedway, has authored a NASCAR book titled "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Checkered Flag."

The book, available at nascar.com, is a collection of interesting and humorous racing stories through the years.

New movie

A North Carolina production company plans to make a movie about the roots of stock car racing called "Run Lightning." Filming is expected to begin April1, 2005. Former driver Ned Jarrett has lent his expertise to the project.

Pit stops

Ryan Newman's victory at Dover on Sunday made him the ninth different winner in the past nine Cup races. ... Carl Edwards is scheduled to compete in both the Craftsman Truck race Saturday night at California Speedway and Sunday's Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.